This clip shows Warren H Williams, an Arrernte man from Hermannsburg in central Australia, explaining his idea of culture and its connection to 'home’. Williams and John Williamson play 'Raining on the Rock’, one of Williamson’s songs, in the central Australian landscape that is a feature of the clip. Over footage of the landscape and of Williams playing music for children, Williams speaks in Arrernte (accompanied by subtitles in English) about the sources of culture for Indigenous Australians.

Educational value points

• Williams discusses the various meanings attached to the idea of culture and the particular significance of land for Australia’s Indigenous peoples. In this context, 'land’ refers to the portion of land defined as 'home’, which has had profound meanings for Indigenous people for millennia. Williams also presents his views about the ways in which culture might be communicated to future generations.
• Williams suggests that Australia’s Indigenous cultures are living and various, and that they are communicated through music, shared stories and experiences in the bush. Indigenous culture, he maintains, is about feeling and being at home on a certain tract of land ('your outstation’) – a community dwelling place where there is no town and where his antecedents have lived for longer than anyone can remember.
• The clip illustrates the possibility of shared cross-cultural understandings through the inclusion of Williamson and Williams together singing one of Williamson’s compositions, a song that is expressive of Aboriginal peoples’ deep connection with the land. In an interview, Williamson said of this experience, ‘[Aboriginal people are] not really conscious of looking at the country, they just know it, you know. It is them … they’re part of it’ (www.abc.net.au).
• The song 'Raining on the Rock’, which is heard in this clip, is an example of the expression and transmission of traditional cultural ideas through new media and especially through country music, which has been taken up as a popular vehicle of artistic expression by Indigenous peoples. Some of the better-known Indigenous artists in country music are Jimmy Little, Gus Williams (Warren Williams’s father), Lionel Rose, Troy Cassar-Daley and Archie Roach.
• Warren H Williams, Arrernte country music singer and songwriter, was born in Hermannsburg near Alice Springs in central Australia. He tours frequently with his band, particularly to the outback and to rural and Aboriginal communities of Australia.
• John Williamson (1945–) is a country music singer and songwriter raised in the Mallee region at Quambatook, Victoria. In 1992 Williamson was awarded an AM (Order of Australia) for services to Australian Country Music and conservation awareness. A duet with Indigenous Australian singer Jimmy Little, 'This Ancient Land’, was accepted as the official song for the Aboriginal Reconciliation event 'Corroboree 2000’.
• Williams and Williamson first performed 'Raining on the Rock’ as a duet in 1998, and that year it won Best Single at the Deadly Sounds Indigenous Awards at the ARIAs (Australian Record Industry Awards). Williams and Williamson teamed up again in 2003 for the True Blue Reunion tour around the USA. They have recorded two CDs together, 'Mates on the Road’ and 'Chandelier of Stars’.

The colour of the desert landscape comes alive with the framing of the scenery and where the main characters – Warren H Williams, John Williamson and Warren’s children – appear in shot, creates a colourful, vibrant landscape that is true to the essence of Warren’s songs.

Warren H Williams, the stories, the songs Synopsis

A documentary about Arrernte musician Warren H Williams, who shares the source of his musical inspiration and the role of family and culture in his personal and professional life.

Warren H Williams, the stories, the songs is part of the Nganampa Anwernekenhe series produced by Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) Productions. Nganampa Anwernekenhe means 'ours’ in the Pitjantjatjara and Arrernte lanuages, and the series aims to contribute to the preservation of Indigenous languages and cultures.

Curator's Notes

Warren H Williams is an Arrernte musician, and in Warren H Williams, the stories, the songs he shares with us the source of his inspiration and his professional accomplishments. Williams was born in Hermannsburg and, inspired by his musical family, became a singer-songwriter himself.

The power of this documentary is in how the filmmakers communicate the relationship Williams has with his country, as well as the significance of his work being rooted in the cultural beliefs of his people. The landscape in this film is depicted as colourful and vibrant, and Warren H Williams communicates this dynamism through his music. Music, story, country and Williams himself are woven into a tapestry of image and song.

Notes by Romaine Moreton